Governance
In News: In the Union Budget 2023-24, Deep Ocean Mission has been allocated Rs 600 crore
Deep Ocean Mission:
- It aims to explore marine biodiversity for the sustainable use of resources
- It is overseen by the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES)
- It includes myriad of activities such as a manned submersible, ship-building, exploration and conservation of deep-sea biodiversity and identification of mineral deposits in the deep ocean
- A manned submersible will be developed to carry three people to a depth of 6,000 metres in the ocean
- In 2016, India was awarded a 15-year contract to explore an area of 75,000 square kilometres for mining polymetallic nodules from the Central Indian Ocean Basin at depths of 5,000-6,000 metres.
- The other components of the mission include developing ocean climate change advisory services and designing offshore Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) powered desalination plants.
Significance
- Oceans are storehouses of food, energy, minerals, and medicines.
- It also modulates weather and climate.
- Deep-sea mining involves extracting ores rich in cobalt, manganese, zinc and other rare metals from the sea floor.
- They contain critical minerals needed to build batteries for electric vehicles and renewable energy capacity, smartphones and laptops.
Source: DTE
